1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a server/client system and, more particularly, to a multiserver workflow system comprising a plurality of subsystems.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a process for circulating a document to concerned departments or concerned persons and obtaining approvals of those circulation destinations. A workflow system realizes such a process on a computer network. Specifically speaking, there is an example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,127.
Generally, a server has business process definition information as definition information of a document flow (business process). The document (case) inputted by the user on a client is controlled in accordance with the definition information.
Hitherto, as a workflow system, there is a workflow system with a single server construction in which one server and a plurality of clients are connected via a network.
There is also a workflow system having a multiserver construction such that a plurality of servers and a plurality of clients are connected via a network and a control is made so that the plurality of servers have the same business process definition information and all of the plurality of servers have the newest status information of a case which is being processed.
There is also a workflow system having a multiserver construction such that a plurality of workflow systems each having the single server construction as mentioned above are connected to the same network.
In case of the conventional workflow system of the single server construction, since all of the businesses depend on one server, if the server causes a malfunction, all of the businesses are stopped. The number of businesses of which the server is in charge increases, a use frequency of the businesses rises, and a load which is applied to the server increases, so that a business executing speed decreases.
In case of the workflow system of the multiserver construction which holds the same information, an amount of information which is stored into each server increases and traffics among the servers for keeping the information identical among the servers occur. There is a case where unless the backup and restoring operations are executed in a lump in all of the servers, a mismatch among the servers occurs in the information recovered from the backup.
In case of the workflow system of the multiserver construction in which a plurality of workflow systems of the single server construction are connected to the same network, since the users cannot be collectively managed, the user management is troublesome. Further, when a change in construction (the number) of servers occurs, it is necessary to change information in all clients using the target system.